Untitled
by Amanthya
Summary: The workings of Alicia's heart are explored as she goes from timid princess to confident warrior. Sets out to explain why the loss of Silmeria causes a change in Alicia's battle lines from "I'm sorry"2"I will show no mercy!"Rating may change. RuxAli hints
1. Chapter One

_Currently untitled--suggestions welcome. You will be credited._

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The Lost Forest was no challenge to even an adventurer of middling experience, never mind a seasoned warrior. But Alicia was neither of those things. She was worse than townsfolk, who might have been taught constant vigilance; she was royalty, albeit royalty in hiding. Next to useless, ask anyone. Worse, she could afford no guards thanks to her current situation save for one, who didn't really believe she was who she said she was anyway.

'I've taught you,' Silmeria's voice reminded her, silent to all else. 'You've practiced these moves.'

"I know!" Alicia gasped quietly, trying not to let her companion hear as he picked off the skeletons from a slight distance with his bow and arrows, hardly even seeming to try. "But it was never real!" Nevertheless, she lunged forward, more habit than anything, and jabbed at her foe. It grunted, bending forward as she hit its torso, then popping back upright, seeming confused. She wished again that the Valkyrie whose spirit she housed in her body would just take over, but Silmeria had insisted she learn to defend herself. After fighting the first battle herself to test Alicia's reflexes, she had passed control in every new encounter to the princess.

'Now follow up!'

She did as she was told and whacked at the monster. He dropped to the ground and lay unmoving. She looked around anxiously but there were no more monsters to be seen. She looked down at the pathetic pile of bones, feeling oddly remorseful, as though it was she who had initiated the attack. "I'm sorry," she whispered to it, afraid it was truly to be one of many she must strike down in order to attain her goal.

Rufus came up beside her, and by the look on his face, he'd heard her softly spoken words. He put a hand on his hip, his weapon already back in place across his back. He regarded her with furrowed brows. "You seemed more confident in the tavern," he said skeptically. "You can hold your own in a real fight, can't you?" He eyed her. The wind blew his hair across his face, slender bangs decorated with intricately carved beads of unknown meaning. With the sun hitting him from the side, he was half in shadow, as mysterious as when they'd first met.

'Answer him,' Silmeria urged quickly. Alicia blinked, rubbing her thumb with her finger, noticing how sparkly his emerald green hair was and wondering how he came to possess such unusual coloring.

"Yes, of course," Silmeria said firmly, shoving Alicia temporarily back from the surface of consciousness. "I was merely distracted. It was unfortunate timing." She turned Alicia's body around and got her walking again on the faint path. The princess was glad she could no longer blush.

The Valkyrie and princess took turns passing back and forth from control, her body never once stumbling in this silent operation thanks to years-long practice, so they could talk privately.

'You must pay attention,' Silmeria lectured her life-long pupil. 'He'll suspect us.'

'I'm sorry,' she answered contritely. 'I was just…just…'

'Distracted?' The Valkyrie sighed. 'I suppose I can understand. You have not really been around men.'

They walked around a boulder in their path. 'What does that mean?' Alicia asked in as much annoyance as she could bring herself to use against the Valkyrie.

Silmeria didn't answer, as she often didn't, retreating into thoughts even the princess couldn't reach. She walked on silently between battles in which she coached Alicia laconically, until they reached the gaping entrance of the hidden path beside a waterfall. There her eye caught by a long-discarded staff resting against a rock in a shallow pool of water, as if its owner had risen for the rest of their journey without it. But Alicia knew immediately that couldn't be the case; no mage ever left their staff unattended, if they used one. The keeper of this weapon was dead.

'I know that staff,' Silmeria mused. 'Yes. We shall soon have another ally.'

Materialization, her host recalled, required an object holding the remnant thoughts of an einherjar in order to bring them into the world once more.

And she raised Alicia's hand, channeling the power of a minor goddess, calling up the birthright naturally hers as one of—the youngest, in fact—of the three sisters of Fate. Concentrating on the carved wood, she closed her vessel's eyes, and called forth an einherjar. A mage, bound to his mistress's physical form, which happened to be Alicia, answered. His was a voice the princess vaguely recognized as one of many in the loud cacophony that sounded when Hrist had first found them in Crell Monferaigne.

Rufus sputtered half-formed words of astonishment as a ghostly figure in a long robe manifested, sleepwalked towards his long-lost staff with his arm out, and knelt briefly to grasp it. He looked almost puzzled to be returned to the land of the living, and quickly returned to his place inside of Alicia's body in order to regain his strength.

'Mithra,' Silmeria explained to Alicia, which was more information than she normally offered. To the archer she said nothing, spinning on her heel as if it had never happened. Alicia wanted to glance aside at him, explain, apologize for the lack of explanation, but Silmeria was in control again. And anyway, the Valkyrie would have none of that. So much for secrecy. At least he couldn't know why 'Alicia' had these unusual powers.

"You're no ordinary princess," Rufus mused, shaking his head as she passed, and they resumed travel. Alicia thought of the distance ahead of them, of sleeping on the ground in dark tunnels and under open skies. Suddenly she realized both she and Silmeria had forgotten her cloak in Solde.


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

'Can't you call Mithra out?' Alicia thought, knowing Silmeria could hear her. A Dire Wolf was loping towards her down the dimly lit path they wandered. She shuddered unhappily, even as Rufus yanked an arrow around and began to aim.

The Wolf had been feeding in the middle of the first cavern, directly between them and the opening through to the rest of the way; there was no getting around it. It had dropped mangled remains at the sight of them, lifting its head to sniff the air, and apparently decided they would be tastier prey.

'He's not strong enough yet. Now pay attention to your enemy!' Silmeria rebuked her.

'But…'

'He's coming closer!'

She had the inward feeling the Valkyrie was just being stubborn. She knew the princess didn't want to fight, especially a beast. The skeletons had been something fantastical to her, out of a nightmare. Wild creatures of the underground path…they were more real. More frightening...especially when they were running at her.

"Hey, are you paying attention!" Rufus yelled, loosing another arrow.

She glanced aside at him. His wisps of beaded hair danced across his face as his body moved, leaning into his stance, in perfected movements that hinted of long practice. He was so obviously skilled…so clearly better than her.

'I'm just a princess…' she thought wanly as he ran at the Wolf, forcing it to skid to a stop and chase after him. But Dipan's royalty of old was rich with warriors. The late Queen Phyress herself was a legendary archer.

"Think you can dodge this?!"

'He's trying to distract it, to keep it from killing you!' Silmeria said in blatant frustration, causing Alicia's fingers to twitch angrily, almost forming a fist. 'Don't let him do all the work!'

'He's trying to protect me?' she wondered. That touched something in her; for all her fear of fighting, she could never let anyone come to harm for her sake. She raised her sword; saw that the beast's back was to her. "I am no fighter," she said to the Valkyrie inside of her, "but I will do my best." And she ran at the red-haired Wolf, sliding her sword low and jabbing up. Its hind legs flipped up and dropped down. Its tailed slashing in the air automatically as it spun defensively in a complete circle, knocking her off her own feet. "Ow!"

"Ridiculous!" Rufus aimed another arrow at the creature as it steadied itself. It growled ominously, howling as a light-infused arrow struck its head, but it kept to its feet. It was hunching, preparing to launch itself again at the archer who was backed up against a boulder twice as tall and wide as he—

Alicia bent her knees, feet firmly on the ground, and rammed her sword into its back end with all the strength she had, and yanked it back out in a smooth straight motion. With a startled yelped, the Wolf collapsed, whining pitifully. Finally, it was still. Her hands unconsciously loosed, and her sword fell.

Her guard straightened up, regarding their slain foe. Then he slid his arrow back into place, and wordlessly collected the spent ones, wiping them clean on the dirty cloth he'd pulled from a compartment at the bottom of the casing of his arrows.

"Rufus—" she began hesitantly as he stood with his back to her.

He whirled around, eyes narrowed, gripping the rag tightly in one hand. "Is that why you wanted me to come along? Because you aren't paying any attention to your surroundings?"

Silmeria twitched in her mind, no doubt looking to tell the man off, but for once Alicia didn't just slide aside, feeling horridly guilty; she deserved this, and the Valkyrie, whatever she might say to him, knew it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, gaze lowering to the ground. Between them lay the dead Wolf. Blood was staining the dirt, spreading slowly towards her. Tears welled up in her eyes; more death at her hand.

"Hey," Rufus said gruffly. She looked up at him as a tear slid out of the corner of one eye and down her cheek. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, and softened his tone. "No…I'm sorry. You wouldn't have asked me to come along if you didn't need me. I guess you're new at this."

She nodded, her hands clasped at her chest earnestly. "Yes. I…I hate fighting. I do need you!"

His cheeks took on the barest hint of red, and he nodded back. "Uh. Yeah. Well. Anyway." He strode toward her, reaching out.

Her eyes widened and she felt her pulse surged. Then he dropped to one knee and gingerly parted the Wolf's lips. "Beasts' fangs are worth something, you know. We can sell these." He took the two largest, the ones the Wolf used to tear flesh apart, prying them from its mouth with the aid of a small dagger he kept in one boot.

Her stomach twisted, and for some reason a strange sense of disappointment rose in her throat. She shook her head.

He looked up at the movement. "Are you okay?" he asked, in the process of cleaning the teeth of blood with the cloth, much as he had his weapons.

Alicia opened her mouth, coughed and gagged, covering her mouth with her hands and turning away, walking off a few paces to her right. After a moment he cleared his throat, and she turned her head.

"Here," he held out her cleaned sword. She'd forgotten all about it.

"Thank you."

"We'd better get going." It was his turn to walk forward, leaving her a bit behind. She tagged along after him, walking wide around the dead wolf's carcass, eyes lowered as they passed under a stone archway. It was a few feet before she saw something flashing scarlet. She slowed, watching. There! There it was again.

"Oh…" she murmured. There was a bit of blood on the toe of her boot, where it had spread to her feet from the body. She stopped and rubbed at the soft dirt, and the mark rubbed off, the spot now lightly covered in silt.

"Great," Rufus said quietly ahead of her, stopping also. She raised her head at the now unmistakable sound of him sliding an arrow free and nocking it. She peered around his form at the gathering of giant insects resting in front of them, making little clicking sounds at a large puddle of water off to the side. All the creatures stopped and turned at the noise as Alicia slid her sword free of her scabbard once again.

"This might take some time," Rufus sighed.

"I'm ready," she assured him.

"Thought you hated fighting," he said with the slightest hint of a smile in his tone as the Beetles crawled at them, claws raised menacingly. She didn't notice this, though Silmeria did.

"I HATE bugs," Alicia said forcefully.

He made a choking sound, before he shot at one of the Beetles, and the princess looked at him worriedly. But just then she too was rushed and gripped her weapon tightly.

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"So I guess you don't mind fighting giant bugs, huh?" he asked once they were on their way again.

She bit her lip. "I hate bugs," she mumbled again, shrugging. She could feel him eyeing her from the side and sped up a little so he couldn't see her flush.

'He's laughing at you,' Silmeria said with some disgust.

'I'm sorry,' she said meekly to the Valkyrie.

'You're a capable warrior, if only you would believe in yourself. You handled that Beetle well enough. I'm sure if you handle even a Goblin if you behaved as fearlessly as you just did.'

'A Goblin?!' she thought in panic, stumbling over a loose rock as her mind conjured the image of a grotesque little hunchback, seen only in storybooks before. She caught herself, arms flailing, when her hand slapped at the wall at her side. She didn't even feel the jagged stone bite into her flesh, tearing it a little as she steadied herself and continued automatically, her hand still brushing the wall and the moldering old wooden boards blocking off other entrances.

"Are you okay?" Rufus asked behind her, his tone guarded and suspicious once again, as it tended to be whenever her body displayed conflict between the two beings inside of it.

"I'm fine," she said distractedly, worrying to herself.

"We'll probably be facing more monsters ahead…they won't all be bugs."

"I know!" she said unhappily, barely hearing the tension in her tone as she tried to remember everything she'd been taught about Goblins. Did they carry weapons? Did they use magic?

'Silmeria?' The Valkyrie wasn't responding, but Alicia could sense her wariness, as if she was waiting for something. Might there be Goblins nearby?

After several more steps, Rufus tried again. "So…anything you wanna tell me?"

Inside of her, Silmeria tensed, edging toward the surface. 'Let me handle this.' And Alicia was left alone with her fears as Silmeria deflected as much of Rufus's questions as she could, her answers vague and terse. If he was thrown off by the change in attitude, he didn't much show it, though his confusion was obvious as he look around the cave for floating spirits.

Though she had heard everything Silmeria told Rufus before, it reminded her of her own questions as Rufus pondered the new information.

'Will he be coming along with us from now on?' she asked, thinking of Mithra.

Silmeria relaxed a bit. "If I don't toughen his spirit, he won't be able to exist apart from me…" she began, hardly seeming aware she answered Alicia aloud, too tired to keep up the constant consciousness-swapping that was so wearying. The princess could feel her concern for the myriad souls bound to her, suffering from the incomplete transmigration. "I must keep them at my side until they regain their strength of spirit," she explained gravely. "That is my duty as the chooser of souls. Help me honor it," she beseeched.

Perhaps Rufus heard and thought she was talking to him, though Alicia knew the Valkyrie spoke to her. Either way, both were committed now to the journey ahead of them.

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_A/N: 100-Series--thank you for being my first reviewer! I was encouraged to write more. I also liked RuxAli for the same reason. I mean, if there must be romance in a story--and there must, you know, if you have at least two members of the opposite sex--at least don't rush it._


	3. Chapter Three

_A/N: Yay to 100-Series, who inspired me to bully my brain into working harder for this chapter._

**Chapter Three**

Alicia followed Silmeria's occasional directives regarding their travel; the Valkyrie wouldn't allow a single path to remain unexplored, reminding the princess how often useful treasures, artifacts, and even scattered oth could be found where least expected. For her part, Alicia would have done without the enemy-infested side-quests, though she never said anything about it. Neither did Rufus, despite her silent unfulfilled wish that he would, and give her an excuse to make conversation. But the dryness of the underground tunnel's air made just swallowing an effort, never mind speaking. At least sweat quickly evaporated off her brow…

Silmeria stopped them as they entered a crossroad. To the right a gap in a wooden bridge was too great to jump, and she almost turned away, but a muted sparkle on the ground drew her forward to kneel and wave away layers of dust. She closed her eyes at the surge of emotions, not her own, and memories flashed in her mind, of little Alicia holding the hand of her mother walking towards this very bridge from the other side, both of them heavily cloaked. Then after a long hug, the princess was abruptly lifted up by a silent hulking figure. She grasped at her mother's necklace, breaking the thin chain. The queen fell to her knees even as Alicia dropped the gold charm, but though she sobbed, she did not stop the guard from carrying her daughter away.

Alicia knew Silmeria could see the images as well, and was grateful when the Valkyrie chose not to comment. She fingered the pendant, rubbing at the dirt, and slid it inside her travel pouch. Rising, she saw a sword resting in the dirt besides the corroded railing of the bridge. This time it was she feeling emotions not her own, though much less emphatically, and quickly suppressed.

'Silmeria?' They had collected another einherjar earlier, a woman named Sylphide, but there had been little reaction from the Valkyrie. What was different this time?

"Hmm?" Rufus muttered, shifting impatiently behind her. Silmeria ignored him as well.

Raising her arm, she called forth a thickly muscled man in ancient warrior's garb. His ghostly form stepped towards the weapon, and he materialized kneeling before it, grasping the handle. He stood quickly in precise motions, his expression neither bewildered nor surprised, as Mithra had seemed. His eyes narrowed intently, studying his surroundings, but it was his hair that made Alicia gasp silently in her own body.

Though his form was powerful and his face was not old, his hair was a strange grey-brown shade, like dust, reminding her that his soul was much older than she could imagine.

'He is from before your time,' Silmeria said to her in brief amusement, sensing the princess's reaction. "My einherjar," she began.

"Stop," he ordered before she could begin her spiel, much to the princess's astonishment. But he proclaimed both his readiness and his loyalty (while Rufus put his hands on his hips and regarded him skeptically). "Dylan," he offered laconically to the archer's expression, settling his weapon in place across his back.

"Welcome," Silmeria said formally and settled on a new direction. Dylan followed her unquestioningly, but Rufus was not so confident.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?"

Silmeria's answer was full of disdain as usual, which incited more disbelief. But her new ally only scoffed at the younger man. After having the last word, Rufus consented to follow them.

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'Ohhh,' Alicia moaned inwardly at the sight of lavender-skinned goblins scuttling across the fork in the tunnel. 'Oh we would have to run into them!' As if in response to her thoughts, the leaders slowed to look in their direction. Those following ran into their backs, causing a nail-slashing squabble, before they all oriented on the new scents.

"This is your chance to prove your readiness," Silmeria said levelly to Dylan, who nodded without taking his eyes off the pack.

"If they won't retreat, they must die," he said calmly.

The goblins hissed at the challenge as if they understood it, hunching their shoulders. En masse, they ran at the travelers. The leader, carrying a crude staff of wood, got an arrow in his eye for his trouble barely three steps into his pursuit, but he either didn't feel it or didn't care. She could hear Rufus's irritated curse as she gripped her sword in sweaty hands.

'Once upon a time,' her mother's voice echoed in her mind, 'there was a little miner's daughter…'

'Alicia!' Silmeria yelled, but her voice was hazy in the wash of the old fairytale, told to a little girl who had not been minding her manners and following orders.

'…who did not obey her father's orders to stay out of the mine…'

Dylan stepped forward and wiped away three goblins with a smashing swing that flung them into the wall. They dropped and fell still, but others were coming. Rufus took a less impressive approach and simply tripped the leader before it could attack the princess they guarded. He raised his bow, aiming.

'…and she stumbled on a group of goblins…'

Alicia snapped to and shook her head violently. With a harsh cry she swung her sword down, neatly decapitating the goblin about to launch itself at her. "Not me, you won't!" The miner's daughter was unarmed and of a gentle nature, and Alicia had always felt a kinship with her. But her storybook fate was not kind.

The horrid taste of bile rose in the back of her throat as she remembered the gruesome ending to the tale of the disobedient daughter. She lunged forward, aiming to skewer a goblin but it danced aside and she only caught one of its small leathery wings, a tough shield of bones and skin. Her blade skidded on it and she lost her balance, falling hard on her side. Too late she remembered the wings were only fragile where they connected to the shoulder-bones. The goblin shrieked angrily and jumped onto her hip.

Dylan's booted foot lashed out, "I'll smash you!" and sent the nasty creature flying far better than its short wings ever would. "Be careful of your mortal body, my lady!" he shouted over the din of high-pitched screams. She was too busy catching her breath to worry over that remark. She got back up but another fiend dropped itself on her sword.

'They're sensitive in the back and bottom,' Silmeria said helpfully. The princess's eyes narrowed vengefully and she slid the sword so that it bit into the goblin's flesh as she shoved the slim blade upwards. It screeched as the weapon torn its bottom half in two. "Found your weak spot?" Alicia asked. Her triumphant grin faded as blood spilled out and down the tilted metal, dribbling between her fingers. The roar of battle seemed suddenly louder in her ears, but somehow unreal. The returning queasiness was certainly genuine, though.

'This is no time to get scared,' Silmeria ordered, momentarily taking control in order to sidestep a goblin sent feet first towards her by a side-kick from Dylan, who didn't pause as he yelled an apology, raising his sword again to the hoard of creatures flocking around his feet.

"I'm…not scared…" she said hesitantly, unable to put to words exactly how she was feeling, though "dirty" crept into her mind.

In front of her a goblin crawled up, raising its club, before its brain seemed to register the arrow sticking out of its eye socket. It keeled over, and she choked, covering her mouth in revulsion.

An arrow flashed inches from her nose to pierce a goblin equally close to the side of her head, sending it backwards into the wall. She turned to see Rufus go down to one knee as several threw themselves at him, biting, clawing. "What is this?!" he yelled angrily, but he couldn't push them all off.

Without thinking she too threw herself at him, sword-first. Silmeria, with a sigh that could only be heard by Alicia, who wasn't listening, corrected the princess's aim so that the metal slashed the wings from the back of the attacker on the archer's shoulder, sending it whimpering away. She did the same for two others, and Alicia let her, trying to block out the death-cries, reminding herself that her comrade needed her. She drew the attention of the mob and they all rose up on their toes, hissing.

"Archer! Drop to your back!" Dylan's voice rang out.

"What?!" Rufus yelled, but Silmeria understood, and, again breaking her rule of non-interference in a fight, dropped her weight to one arm, pivoting and swinging her legs out to knock Rufus over in a move her host could never hope to emulate any time soon on her own. The goblins jumped up automatically, as they were known to, just in time for Dylan's massive sword to slice them all in half. Blood splattered the heavy warrior, the ground, and the green-haired man underneath the pile of disassembled bodies.

Groaning, he pulled himself out from their dead weight, rubbing at his face and grimacing. "Nice warning."

"You are unharmed," Dylan said calmly. He looked about for something to clean his blade with. Rufus, though a bit grudgingly, pulled out several old cloths from his compartment.

"I'll need to wash these soon," he sighed.

Alicia, meanwhile, had gotten to her feet, feeling oddly empty. She put a hand to her throat.

"How do you fit so much into that slot on the bottom of your arrow sheath?" Silmeria asked the archer, who looked at her blankly. "Is it magic?"

"What's it matter?" he asked roughly, jaw tightening.

"That kind of useful magic is rarely seen outside of Elf craftsmanship," Silmeria said suspiciously. "And the Dísir are thought to be the sole holders of such items outside of the Forest of Spirits, as favored lesser deities of Freya's. However did you come to possess such an item?" Though she voiced mistrust, strangely, Alicia had the feeling she already knew the answer to her own question—the feeling she normally got when the Valkyrie was testing her.

"I never said it was magic," Rufus said gruffly.

Dylan, wiping his sword with a handful of the rags, glanced up sharply. "Do not speak to the princess in that tone," he warned.

Rufus opened his mouth, eyed the sword, and closed it, reaching up to rub the back of his head. "I've traveled around a lot. I've acquired a lot of things people from people who didn't really understand what they had," he said evasively. He glanced at her hand and presented yet another scrap of cloth.

Alicia nodded, taking it, although Silmeria's tone remained cool. 'That doesn't necessarily explain how he got that,' she pointed out in her lecturing voice. 'You must learn to keep an eye on people who cannot answer simple questions. Though even if he had, he could be lying,' she added.

'That's not very helpful,' Alicia said, deliberately ignoring Rufus and Dylan as they dug out the goblins' hearts and dumped the tiny, bloody life-force stones into a sack, vowing to get a good price for them at the next shop they found.

'I sense trouble ahead,' Silmeria said, changing the subject as she aimed Alicia's body down the tunnel. Her companions followed soon after.

'Didn't we just get out of that?' the young woman complained. Ahead, a small dip to the left proved to be an unoccupied niche they could rest in. Beyond that was a large open cavern. Alicia was glad to see it. "I've had enough of these narrow tunnels we've been fighting in," she said to no one in particular.

'That is usually the most dangerous place of all,' Silmeria grumbled. 'Open on all sides to attack.'

She rummaged in her pack for a drink of water, offering it to the others, and searching for the covering over the dried meat, handing that out as well. Sensing her host's dismay, and growing weariness, her attitude softened. In the silence of the fatigued group, the Valkyrie spoke to her, telling her a tale of a great king and queen of long-gone kingdom, who were destined for one another. Thwarted by their mortal enemies from their places of birth, they ran away, guided by the goddess Var. When they met, Siofn and Lofn encouraged their romance and devotion, and when united in marriage, they captured the devotion of the peoples of both their kingdoms.

'Did they come to a good end?' Alicia asked hopefully. No mention of the major gods or goddess was to be heard, which was usually a good sign…

'They did,' Silmeria said softly. 'They overcame the wicked parties who sought their places and power, and ruled peacefully, combining their warring kingdoms into one land that prospered until their natural deaths.'

'What happened then?'

Silmeria was silent a moment. 'I don't know. The kingdom faded, eventually, as all do. This was long before my awakening…' She trailed off, and they both thought of how that awakening had ended—with the demi-goddess improperly transmigrated into an infant princess.

'Are there many stories of love in Asgard?' Alicia asked wistfully, 'of happy endings?'

Silmeria seemed to shrug, her spirit growing restless somewhere inside the princess' s body. 'There are many tales of all manner of endings. The only one that truly matters is the one we are in now,' she said firmly, refocusing her attention on the mission at hand. She stood. "Let's go."

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_A/N: Credit to http: / / www . timelessmyths . com / norse / index . html for background info on Norse mythology and as always to Rovelius for the cut-scenes on youtube. Note, the Dísir are truly from legend, but there is no record I have found on magic compartments, known to some as "magic anime pockets". This creation is purely for the sake of this story.  
_

_To my reviewers:_

_100-Series—thanks! I was sorta at a loss as to how quickly to proceed on the second chapter, since the story's mostly about Alicia's evolving courage and skill in battle, and will therefore have to be mostly set around battle scenes. I'm a little limited that way, but this chapter was at least longer. I hope you approve and enjoy!_

_Final Hikari—aww…your words make me so happy! Squee! Hehe, and they also made me laugh. Worked Sylphide in there, did you see that? I guess it is kind of a novelization of VP2, though it focuses on the battle scenes. Some cut-scenes are unavoidable for detailed mentioning but some will be glossed over. Any and all title suggestions are welcome; I'm just waiting for something to have just the right feel. As for feeding the animals, I never actually did that, so I don't know what happens when you do…_


	4. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four  
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Silmeria got them up and moving again, then turned Alicia's body back over to her. She paused, glancing aside at Rufus as he closed the bottom of his arrow sheath before rising to his feet.

'Do you think he got it from a Dísir?' She tried to maintain a casual tone even as an image rose in her head of a beautiful semi-immortal woman, who bore a striking resemblance to the painted image of a battle maiden reputed to be Silmeria, holding out her hand to a green-haired man. She suddenly felt very plain and dirty in her sweaty clothes.

'Unlikely,' came the distracted answer.

"Then you think he stole it?' she asked, horrified. She edged away from her first and potentially morally ambiguous guard, all her warm feelings of companionship disappearing. He didn't seem to notice. 'I thought we could trust him...'

'There's no one we can really trust,' Silmeria reminded her darkly, taking control briefly to glance over Alicia's shoulder and check behind them.

'But we need allies,' her host protested.

'Yes, we do. But I would not give total trust to anyone. I advise you to do the same,' the Valkyrie counseled her. 'You musn't depend too firmly on someone who could fail or betray you.'

They walked on a few more steps before Alicia gathered her courage to continue. 'Do you trust me?'

'...Yes. While knowing your limits,' Silmeria said finally. Sensing the princess's sadness, she hastened to add, 'You're becoming stronger. But you're mortal yet.' And afraid, but she didn't say that, though they both knew it. Silmeria casually changed the subject.

'If Rufus did steal that item, it would mark him as a crafty and skilled man. We could surely use his talents.' This did not help Alicia's depression. 'Of course, he probably didn't need to, nor would it have been easy to have gotten past the traps surrounding such items. It is likely he impressed some foolish, lonely Dísir guard--they're all female,' she said, as if foolishness were limited to mortal-ish females. 'And he recieved that as an award for the entertainment. We can still use such a man,' she said thoughtfully.

The depression increased as the princess considered what exactly Silmeria meant by "entertainment". Her knowledge was limited, but the Valkyrie's tone hinted it was not something as simple as juggling or music she spoke of. No, she spoke of something...indecent.

That thought, combined with the lack of faith in her host, made Alicia want to cringe. Instead, she made a promise. 'I'll become stronger on my own.' And she sensed Silmeria's approval, as if she'd gotten exactly the reponse she'd wanted. Alicia was getting a little better and reading her emotions, like facial expression she couldn't see but could feel in bursts of warmth or empty coldness at varying temperatures.

The trio walked into the cavern in vastly different stances; Alicia was dejected but still relaxing out of the claustrophobic earlier paths, Rufus was eyeing the stalagtites hanging far overhead, and Dylan was turning his head left and right to check for moving shadows. The expanse laid out before them was startlingly bare, dotted with a few torch-stands in uneven intervals, but the muggy air was a relief after the dryness of the tunnels. The princess nodded her head towards the barely visible exit ahead of them and pointed it out, earning another sarcastic remark from Rufus, as seemed to be his habit and what she had expected. But before Alicia could so much as breathe a sigh of relief for their safety, Rufus and Dylan began snipping at each other on the subject of protocol--how the archer spoke to Alicia's royal self, to whom he had not yet sworn loyalty to.

Silmeria broke in. "Enough!" she said scathingly, as annoyed with her einherjar as she was with Rufus, for involving himself in so petty an arguement. She could commend any form of behavior she wanted from Rufus herself, whenever she chose if she cared to. The two men fell silent, and by the scrapping of boots behind her, had turned to face her. She stood quietly, eyes narrowed in concentration, ignoring Alicia's queries. Without so much as a hint of a private warning, she spun slowly on her heel. "I sense a guardian beast. I TRUST you two still have some fight left in you?" she asked almost mockingly.

Naturally, it did not stop their reluctant guard from questioning her. But this allowed Alicia to hear the explanation of the transformed souls that safeguarded their homeland, acting as sentry in the form of beasts in certain locations.

Listening to Silmeria taunt the uncertain archer into prickly defensiveness that served as a substitute for battle-courage as Dylan looked impassively on, made her wonder about the methods the divine being inside of her used so easily. As if sensing her dismay the Valkyrie suddenly submerged into her deeper conciousness before Alicia could question her, and she was left to move quickly aside as Rufus pushed past her with a huff.

She followed the two uneasily further into the openness, trying to shield her thoughts from Silmeria without seeming to do so, and phrase a suitable leading remark about the way Silmeria spoke to other mortals. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the silence, and she decided that was what was making concentrating difficult. They crossed wordlessly in front of a set of stairs leading up to a mounted circular dais surrounded on four points by slender tapering towers.

A strong white light appeared at the tops of four stone towers as they past them, like that of bright clouds covering the sky and tainting the sun's light without taking away its strength. Alicia was halfway to shielding her eyes when both of her guardians moved in front of her as a strange form began to materialize in the center of the slender light-towers. Adrenaline pumped back through her veins, surging life into her tired limbs with each pounding beat of her heart.

'What is it?' she asked, just as the Valkyrie made her own comment, shifting her weight to better see.

'Such armor!' she said admiringly. Then she seemed to remember it was an enemy. 'But it may be thinner in the back...' Just then Rufus twitched aside, grabbing an arrow. The princess was left to stare in shock as a rhino-like monster several feet higher and many times more massive than even Dylan filled her vision. Suddenly the cavern didn't feel as big as before.

"It looks as surprised to see us as we are to see it," Rufus whispered, crouched halfway between a defensive and an attack stance.

The bigger warrior sneered at it, hands tightening on his sword. "Pity only invites death," he said authoratively. "Now attack!" He ran at the beast, who just stood there as if it couldn't believe its prey risked making such a stupid move. Rufus and Alicia ran after him. The guardian beast pivoted slowly, armored everywhere from its handless arms to all four ankles, trying to get a lock on its attacker. Its massive horn loomed over an eyeless face and gaping mouth that blended seemlessly into its chest area, also protected with a thick shield. Dylan ran around it, keeping its attention with sharp battle cries, surveying the creature for its weak spot. He headed toward the unprotected but thick purple tail but the rhino managed to lumbered around at enough of an angle to keep its hindquarters out of his reach. Frustrated, his sword clanged loudly against one of its shielded arms, but did little but chip away at the armor.

Rufus stopped further away and aimed lower, but his arrow bounced off its spiky belly armor with a *clink!*. He swore. "It's covered everywhere!"

Its hooves flashed darkly and it turned to face the second menace, but stopped before Alicia, who had paused with uncertainty.

"Move!" Rufus yelled, running back to her but not moving fast enough.

The rhino's mouth opened for a burst of fire to envelope her. "Aaah!" she screamed, dropping to the ground and turning on her stomach trying to escape. Her skin seemed to ripple with heat.

"Princess!" Dylan swung his sword at the beast's face, re-directing its attention. Rufus reached her side and gaped at the burns on her thighs, hands and face where her clothing's weak magic had not protected her.

'Heal!' Silmeria ordered.

"Heal..." Alicia repeated weakly, using her only magic ever learned and rarely used. A white mist glowed around her briefly, not very strong, but it took away the pain and blisters, leaving only raw-looking pinkened skin.

"Call an einherjar!" Rufus urged, grabbing her by the crook of her arm and hauling her to her feet. They swayed as the rhino pounded past chasing Dylan, and he tightened his grip on her.

'They aren't strong enough yet!' Silmeria answered Alicia's question before she could even ask it. They had collected another heavy-warror like Dylan earlier.

"Come on!" Rufus's yell, combined with the crashings of hooves and screaming of the two opponents, raised the din to such a level that for a moment even the demi-goddess could feel the vibrations of it in her host's chest, more powerfully than the rapid beating of her heart.

'But we need them! This will make them stronger!' Alicia protested as Rufus let go of her so abruptly she lost her balance as he ran back to the battle. She fell to her knees as her blood rushed about.

'I never intended to initiate them in such a fierce battle...'

Ahead of them, the rhino reared onto its hind legs and titled its head, dropping its horn at Dylan, who barely managed to scramble away in time. His sword flashed in the light as he ducked and rolled, popping up underneath an arm and hacking away forcibly enough tear partway through the armored limb.

Roaring in pain or anger, or both, the rhino charged and knocked him sideways off his feet. Another round of fire exploded from its mouth.

'He's fighting alone!' Alicia pleaded as Rufus's arrows failed to slow the beast's rampage even when they scored. Internal silence. Then--

'All right. Mithra...' she called as Alicia pulled herself up.

The robed mage appeared at her side. He glanced around, studying the situation, then nodded. "I too am ready," he assured her. And he forged on ahead, staff held at the ready, as if he had left the battlefield only yesterday. The guardian beast had blocked Dylan with its good arm and was swinging around its tailed to knock Rufus off his feet as the mage approached. Golden runes flashed in two circles, one inside another, around his feet as he stopped behind it and readied his spell. "Frigid damsel!"

A translucent white woman with long shimmering hair and a flowing dress that faded into nothingness answered his summons and circled over the rhino. With a tinkling sound of bells in the air she lunged thrice at their enemy, clawing at it with elongated nails like talons, and then jumped back into her world in burst of icy shards just before she hit the ground.

The rhino groaned deep in its throat at the painful distraction, tossing its horn about but failing to hit her before she disappeared, completely ignoring the others. It was the break they had needed.

In her mind's eye, Alicia recalled the earlier fight with the goblins, and ran at the rhino as inspiration struck and hopefully before fear could. "Alicia!" Rufus gasped, but she ignored him. At the beast's side she dropped onto her hip and let her momentum carry her forward, skidding under the heaving belly and ramming her sword quickly up and back down on the way. Jagged half-buried rocks tore into her thigh as she made it to the other side just as the rhino reared up, trumpeting in surprise.

"Agh!" she moaned through gritted teeth.

"You remembered that move," Silmeria praised hurriedly before urging her to get up before they got trampled.

There was no need to worry. Mithra's next spell caught the rhino in the chest as it dropped to all four hooves again and Rufus dropped to one knee to better aim at its wounded belly. But Dylan topped them all in two moves. He roared almost as loudly as the rhino as he jumped up into the air and dropped so heavily that his sword went through the half-torn muscle holding the broken limb to the body.

A shrill animalistic shriek rent the air and Rufus and Alicia gaped in disbelief. But Mithra quickly attacked the weakened side as Dylan performed an even more awesome feat, swinging angrily down and lopping off the unprotected tail in one mighty blow.

Blood erupted from the wounds as the rhino shot forth more flames into the empty air in front of it, rocking side-to-side in pain, unable to choose a direction to go in.

"Finish it!" Dylan yelled.

"Do lost souls have a place to call home?" Alicia whispered to the devoted guardian, knowing only Silmeria would hear her as she raised her weapon again in defiance to her pain.

.

"Heal," she said, casting her magic on Dylan multiple times, then herself again, hoping her skin would stop tingling painfully soon. She stood before the heavy warrior, who was sitting on a boulder. Their weapons were re-sheathed.

'Heal him again,' Silmeria told her.

Alicia glanced at the man's detatched expression. 'He seems fine.'

'Do it again,' the Valkyrie said curtly, then continued more calmly, 'I want everyone battle-ready at all times. No injuries, no muscle weakness.'

Alicia fought the urge to shrug and did as told then asked if Silmeria thought Rufus needed to be healed. She didn't. 'He was never hit.'

"Hey do you think we can use this?" Rufus called from the side, completely unaware he was currently the subject of their conversation.

Wearily Alicia dropped her arm and looked at him. He was toeing the rhino's dismembered arm-shield, which was longer than Dylan was tall. "It's not too damaged," he said thoughtfully.

"My lady," Mithra said quietly from behind her, and she turned to see his exhausted expression. Silmeria quickly called his newly awakened spirit back into Alicia's body and addressed the archer.

"It's too burdensome," she said without looking at him. She raised her brows at Dylan, who nodded.

"I am ready to continue," he said in answer to her expression.

Alicia didn't feel the same, although it had been a short day for them--they had risen late and taken several breaks. But the battles were taking their toll on her; she was used to a softer lifestyle. She didn't feel comfortable asking for another break, though.

So they went on out of the cavern, up another tunnel, although this one with a set of stone steps cut evenly into the ground, and finally back out into the fresh air that was so sweet in revived her a little. She took a deep breath, savoring the moment.

Which of course Rufus ruined by promptly demanding his payment. Dylan scowled at him.

She'd almost forgotten he didn't intend to stay with her. Even though she didn't know if she could trust him, she felt strangely hurt at the thought of him leaving.

'We'd make it on our own,' Silmeria comforted her.

"Please," she beseeched him, for once completely ignoring the Valkyrie, "won't you escort me to the castle?" She tried to make her case, but Rufus's expression became rather smirky. She didn't know why it bothered her so much.

Dylan reassured her he not only would stay by her side, but remembered the layout of the land. Before she could respond, Rufus made a soft snorting sound and asked where her loyal servants were.

"Isn't it about time you gave up this little charade, Princess Alicia? Or perhaps, since I can only assume the souls of your heavens-bound einherjar are listening--"

'Enough,' Silmeria said.

"--it would be simpler if I just called you...Valkyrie."

Silmeria raised Alicia's chin proudly. "Indeed," she said coolly, inwardly a little surprised he had managed to put two-and-two together. He had appeared almost as ignorant and naive as Alicia.

His eyes widened despite his smug analysis. "There's TWO of you in there."

"I'm Silmeria, hello," she introduced herself formally, not expecting much from him. But it turned out not out not only had he heard of her, he knew of her place in the trinity.

"Valkyries aren't incarnated as humans, not without a reason," he murmured, his brows drawing together in alarm. He actually managed to surprise her with his knowledge of Valkyrie lore and memory for gossip, detailing the rumors of Dipan's treachery-to-be. But he was completely off-based in his next words, accusing her of searching for evidence of rebellion for Odin.

She matter-of-factly declared her seperation from Odin and her intent to ally herself with the king of Dipan, letting no trace of any emotion come across in her face or voice.

'He knows more than me,' Alicia complained self-deprecatingly at the same time as Rufus subsided, finally reassured (though he remained somewhat aloof). Strangely, she thought, he glanced at his hand and told them to count him in.

'Why?' she wondered to Silmeria, who didn't answer.

There was no conversation after that, either aloud or between her and her and Silmeria, to distract her from what was looming ahead. They would pass through the city to re-stock supplies and sell the items they had gathered, banking on Alicia's long absence and age to conceal her identity. Then they would approach the castle that shadowed so much of the city, cold and impressive and guarded. Inside was an imposing figure, majestically robed and crowned, the menacing center of her dismal dreams, unmoving as stone but radiating distaste--all she had ever known from him. The ruler of Dipan, the author of her exile...

Her father.

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_A/N: Wow, that was a lot longer than I intended it to be. This chapter just finally flowed for me, instead of resisting my attempts to write it. The battle scene gave me the worst fits. I suck at them. Be kind about that, peeps. ;0__0; *despair and tears*_

_To my reviewers:_

_100-series: "It seems like Silmeria walks a thin line between compassionate and ruthlessness." Yes, and you see some of that with the way she's __manipulating Alicia's budding relationship with Rufus, b/c she doesn't want the princess to merely transfer her attatchment to Rufus, she __wants her to grow independently strong. But that of course increases Alicia's isolation, however well-intentioned Silmeria was being. I hoped that sort of answered the discrepancy._

_LotornoMiko--I was hoping you'd come and review. *smile* Thanks for noticing the arrow bit. I wanted someone to enjoy me trying to cover plot holes (ah, the arrows that never run out, and the 99 health potions they carry in their back pockets...). _


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